Joell Ortiz has teamed with Audiomack to bring us YAOWA Nation, a new mixtape of him remixing other peoples’ tracks with his own rhymes. Here are the first two selections, covering Sam Smith’s “Stay With Me” and Iggy Azalea’s “Beg For It.”

The state of New York rap has been in flux. The birthplace of hip-hop once proudly laid claim to “hardcore hip-hop,” shunning commercial rap on many classic tracks. Competition in the game however led to that sound disappearing, with artists like Jay Z, The Notorious B.I.G., and Big Pun finding a way to toe the [cont.]

From Straight Shooters: “If it feels like Straight Shooters took the summer off from podcasting it’s because we did but only in the hopes of bringing you a better show. Our first guest back is the illustrious rhyme slayer Joell Ortiz, 1/4 of the rap supergroup SlaughterHouse. The best way to describe Joell Ortiz is [cont.]

Joell Ortiz has given us the first look at the cover to his new album, House Slippers, along with its tracklist. 1. House Slippers 2. Cold World (feat. Lee Carr) 3. Dream On 4. Music Saved My Life (feat. B.O.B & Mally Stakz) 5. Brothers Keeper (feat. Royce da 5’9″, Joe Budden, Crooked I) 6. [cont.]

Joell Ortiz shares memories of his very first time entering a project cypher, the inspiration he found during the golden age of hip-hop and breaks down the levels of MCing. In the second clip, Joell Ortiz steps up to showcase his keen ability to freestyle for TheBoombox’s 16 Bars series.